Bell X1 had a narrow escape on Saturday March 15 when their tour bus caught fire outside the Medford, Massachusetts hotel they were staying in.

The Hot Press Newsdesk, 17 Mar 2008

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They’re one of Ireland’s most beloved bands – and critics’ darlings to boot. Now Bell X1 are counting down to their biggest show of the year at Forbidden Fruit. Paul Noonan talks about the group’s ambitions and his appetite for collaboration.

Bell X1's Paul Noonan sits down with Hot Press and discusses the untapped potential of 2013's Chop Chop, when the group will start working on their next album, and the solo album and Forbideen Fruit performance that will happen in between. All in the latest issue of Hot Press, out today

What do Q-Tip, UNKLE, U2, PJ Harvey and Depeche Mode have in common? They’ve all at some point been an influence on Paul Noonan and Dave Geraghty who sit down with Peter Murphy to talk about musical heroes, the evolution of their own chart-conquering career and how they learned to embrace the Gary Numan within on their new album, Bloodless Coup. Plus, find out courtesy of our exclusive Hot Press competition how you can lure the Bellies to your living-room for a private gig.

It was inflight double entendres all round as Bell X1 donned cabin crew attire for a special Hot Press photoshoot. When not showing an unhealthy interest in women’s clothes and fancy Raybans, they talked about their chart-topping new album Blue Lights On The Runway, their imminent breakthrough in the US and freezing their arses off on The Late Show with Dave Letterman

Thirty lucky fans were treated to a special acoustic Bell X1 show in the intimate surroundings of Bewley's Cafe Theatre in Dublin last weekend. And HP's Ruth Medjber was there to catch all the action on camera...

On the eve of the release of Tour De Flock, BellX1’s live album and DVD from Dublin’s Point Theatre, Paul Noonan, Brian Crosby and Dominic Phillips answer the weird and wonderful questions of hotpress readers, from the swimming habits of monkeys to ripping the gusset of your pants on stage.

Their transition from traditional ‘indie’ beginnings to a more lavish, gothic sound suggests a development that, for my money, has never been backed up by a commensurate break-through in terms of songwriting. Or maybe I’ve been missing something...

A radio favourite since January, the delay in releasing ‘Rocky’ can be attributed to a desire to similarly see it take off across the pond. A story of lush melodies, chiming instrumentation and Paul Noonan’s bittersweet lyrics, ‘Rocky’ will probably be most of interest to Irish fans for its b-sides. Amongst them lies a sparse acoustic reworking of Depeche Mode’s ‘Enjoy The Silence’ that should prove a live favourite on their forthcoming November tour.

This is one of the finer moments from Bell X1’s patchy and somewhat overrated Flock LP. Anyone with even half an ear cocked to radio will be well aware of this infectious sing-a-long from the X1 boys. A proven favourite on the airwaves, the group’s collective ears will be firmly tuned to see if UK disc jocks show a similar penchant for ‘Flame’s shouty chorus and chiming guitar lines.
Irish fans however will be more interested in a live version of the track, due to be made available on the group’s website in the coming weeks.

Bell X1 at the RDS? It would have seemed unthinkable a few years back, but 2005 was a good year for the group – one in which they took steps to ensure that they will be remembered as more than just Damien Rice’s old playmates.

With the release of their acclaimed third album Flock, which went straight to No.1 in Ireland, Bell X1 have staked their claim not just to greatness, but also to potential world domination – a possibility which is reinforced considerably by their powerful showing in the Hot Press Readers’ Poll. Here, in an emotional and revealing interview, the band’s photogenic frontman Paul Noonan discusses life, art, love, death... and music.

Its real beauty comes when the effort is made to tunnel further down. The songs you were tempted to skip first become familiar, then recognisable, then at a point only hindsight will reveal, become shining examples of subtle magnificence, however much you’re loath to admit a change of heart.

Those of us who always suspected Bell X1 of the denatured blandness that typified the genre they skirt will find in ‘Bigger Than Me’ a large, layered soft pop track that is cheerfully mordant, with more than a hint of Liam O’Maonlai. In ‘Still Selling Shoes’ we get neatly itemised observations of the mundane roles enjoyed by now legendary or indeed notorious Irish performers. Not many would shoehorn (ahem) Rory Gallagher and Ronan Keating into a song, and fewer still could make it work.

Expectations for new material are, understandably, quite high, both from long term fans of the band and the ever-broadening circle of new admirers, Indeed, the days of Bell X1 filling medium size stages could well be numbered – as it is, tonight’s stage can barely hold the band’s enthusiasm and confidence.

Hot Press visited BellX1 in their city-centre studio, where the group are working on the follow-up to Music In Mouth. “There’s been a lot less fuck-acting this time around,” they tell John Walshe. Photo: Liam Sweeney

Music In Mouth is a more unified, distinctive and cohesive record that showcases the band’s multiple directions, adding further conviction to the depths of epic balladeering on ‘Eve, The Apple Of My Eye’, the quirky pop of ‘Next To You’ or the manic rock of ‘White Water Song

Bell X1’s debut album displays a touching uncertainty. Apart from the robust vanguard of ‘Pinball Machine’ and the confident swish of ‘Man On Mir,’ Neither Am I has a preponderance of translucent ballads. Most of these, while genuinely lovely, are not as striking as they might be, due to the distant, dreamy production style.